Music, Society and Imagination in Contemporary France provides new insight into the dominant creative elements of French contemporary music at the close of the 1980s. The collection includes thirteen essays drawn from a diverse range of authors, sketches by composers, musicological studies, and interviews, and a discussion of the universal problems of writing and technique. These elements have taken on an auxiliary role in contemporary music, as musical forms are no longer a primordial concern. The collection poses such challenging questions as whether music should be created for those who do not make it. A better knowledge of how to make music will be gained through a clearer understanding of why it is made.